


I'll Follow You Down

by burymeonpluto



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamscapes, M/M, Swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28465695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burymeonpluto/pseuds/burymeonpluto
Summary: “Again, huh?” Sora sighs into his hair. “Vanitas… have you ever had a good dream? Do you want to share one of mine?"(Sora pulls Vanitas into his dream to try and escape the nightmares.)
Relationships: Sora/Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	I'll Follow You Down

  
  
  
Sweet dreams don’t exist, as far as Vanitas is concerned. If they do, they’ve never bothered to grace him with their presence.  
  
No, for Vanitas, the best sleep is a peaceful void. Nothingness: where he closes his eyes only to open them again. Not quite deep enough to scrape together any night terrors. That is, if he bothers to fall asleep at all. But all too often, he slips from the edge. He falls from the continental shelf and plummets into the abyss where the nightmares threaten to eat him alive.  
  
The others have grown accustomed to him screaming in the dead of night. Most of them have stopped bothering with him. It doesn’t matter. Vanitas doesn’t want them to see him in that state—trembling and sniveling and soaked in a cold sweat. It’s better that they don’t see. He can gather himself up if he wants. He can mop the sweat from his face with the hem of his shirt. He can melt into the darkness until it’s a part of him, just like it always has been, and slip through the walls and beneath the door to Sora’s room. Standing motionless in the shadows, no more than a shadow himself, and nothing but afraid. Not afraid of the dark, or Sora, or anything he can hold in his hands; but overcome with baseless, pathetic fear.  
  
And Sora always knows he’s there. He can feel it through the air. Feel Vanitas’s fear within the breeze from the open window. Sora turns over until his gaze easily finds Vanitas in the dark. The dim moonlight catches nothing but the whites of Sora’s eyes. The white of his teeth. He opens his arms, and Vanitas’s fear clamors up his throat.  
  
No. Shove it back down.  
  
Vanitas stumbles towards the bed and falls into Sora’s waiting embrace. He can’t breathe. Sora’s heartbeat is calm and steady in his ears.  
  
“Again, huh?” Sora sighs into his hair. “Vanitas… have you ever had a good dream?”  
  
He presses his face into Sora’s chest. It’s so warm here.  
  
Sora hums like he understands. His fingers slide through Vanitas’s hair, clean and detangled for once. For just this purpose. “Do you want to share one of mine?”  
  
“What?” Vanitas chokes, his voice still trembling.  
  
“Dreams… are weird,” he drones sleepily.  
  
“You’re weirder.”  
  
Sora chuckles. Low and soft and warm. “You think so?”  
  
“Who else would say something like that? Who else...” _would put up with_ _this_ _?_ Vanitas finishes silently. He can already imagine the frown that would mar Sora’s face if those words actually left him. Vanitas doesn’t want to see it. He lets the nightmares continue their little whispers along the undercurrent of his thoughts.  
  
But Sora’s arms tighten around him anyway. He already knows. His fingernails carefully rake through soft black hair. “What if I showed you? I promise it’ll be okay.”  
  
Vanitas feels himself begin to fall. He’s dropping down into sleep again, where only nightmares wait to slaughter him. He clings tighter to Sora. “Wait—”  
  
“I promise,” Sora murmurs.  
  
Vanitas slips through the spaces between Sora’s heartbeats. Everything fizzles away.  
  
.

.

.

Vanitas floats weightless in the darkness. The chittering nightmares bite at his ears. _Afraid. Worthless. Destroyer._  
  
He feels the weight of Sora’s fingers in his hand. He’s pulled to Sora’s side, and gasps as gravity returns beneath him. His eyes open to warm orange light and salty air, just bright enough to make him squint. The whispers are drowned out by the crashing ocean waves.  
  
Sora’s grip tightens. He leans into Vanitas’s line of sight with his best, burning smile. They’re perched on a crooked tree overlooking the ocean. “You see?”  
  
“Where is this?” he nervously licks his lips, and they’re already coated in sea spray.  
  
“Destiny Islands.”  
  
“Why here?”  
  
Sora shrugs and kicks his feet. “I like it here.”  
  
How simple. Vanitas stares out into the water. Calm but always churning. It seems so real.  
  
“Have you ever been into the ocean?”  
  
“What good would it do me?”  
  
“C’mon, it’s not so bad,” Sora chuckles, and leaps from the arm of the tree. “I’ll show you.”  
  
This is Sora’s dream, so it’s not like Vanitas has much of a choice. He follows Sora down to the shoreline, watching him kick off his shoes and march into the water without a care in the world. He turns back to Vanitas with a smile that could blind the sun, and waves him over.  
  
“Let’s go! I’ll teach you!”  
  
Vanitas shifts his weight, unsteady in the soft sand. “Teach me what?”  
  
“How to swim! You don’t _know_ , do you?”  
  
“Why would I?”  
  
“Exactly! So, come here!”  
  
He grits his teeth. The sea spray hisses like harsh whispers. Vanitas pulls off his shoes and joins Sora out to sea. The water splashes past his knees with each passing wave.  
  
“Perfect,” Sora grins. “Before you learn to swim, you gotta learn to float.”  
  
Vanitas narrows his eyes. “That takes learning?”  
  
“Of course! You can’t just _not move_. There’s a technique! You gotta relax, and let the water keep you afloat. If you’ve got too much tension, you’ll sink like a rock.” Then he waits, like he’s expecting some kind of praise for bestowing this wisdom upon Vanitas. There isn’t any. Sora shrugs, “It’s easier to float in saltwater.”  
  
Vanitas lets the waves flow through his fingers. The water feels gritty with salt and sand. “Why is it easier?”  
  
“I dunno,” Sora admits. He tilts his head like he’s thinking hard about it. “I just remember Riku telling me that once… but I can’t remember why. I’ll have to ask him later.”  
  
“I’m sure the answer is fascinating,” Vanitas mutters.  
  
“Maybe not, since I can’t remember it,” Sora chuckles, and slips their hands together. “C’mon. We’ll have to go a little farther.”  
  
His grip tightens over Sora’s hand. He doesn’t resist as Sora leads him into the water. Just a bit deeper, until it crests at their waists.  
  
Although Vanitas’s feet can still reach the sand, beneath the water is bottomless. Dark. Writhing with an army of nightmares waiting to tear him apart with their gnashing razor-blade teeth. Flesh without armor is softer than it has any business being.  
  
“Hey, Vani,” Sora tugs on his hands, and the shadows burn away. “I’ve got you.”  
  
He stares into Sora’s face, and his vision is a little clearer.   
  
Sora steps close and lays a hand on the small of his back. “I’ve got you.”  
  
Vanitas curls his lip. “You keep saying that.”  
  
“Because it’s true.”  
  
“It’s annoying.”  
  
“Just lean back. I won’t let you sink.”  
  
Vanitas doesn’t know if he believes that, but he clenches his teeth and follows instructions. He lays down into the shallow water. Sora’s hands press lightly into his back and hold him aloft. The water covers his arms, legs, and most of his chest. It frames his face, and Vanitas feels the little claws of shadows scrape against the shell of his ear. The chattering. The whispers. _Hopeless. Monster._ The shadows wrap around his limbs and try to pull him under.  
  
Vanitas jerks back upright with a gasp. Sora frowns worriedly. “It’s alright. Just relax.”  
  
_Easy for you to say_ , he thinks, but he won’t say it. It’s nothing but weakness.  
  
“Let go of the tension so you don’t sink.” He presses Vanitas back down, but not forcefully. “Just breathe…”  
  
Again: easier said than done. As soon as Vanitas’s ears slip back beneath the water, the whispers return—sharp and fierce. Nightmares dig into his skin and the punctures burn with salt.  
  
“Breathe,” Sora says again. Vanitas tries. He really does. The water cradles him, and then Sora’s hands vanish. The connection is broken and shadows creep in and Vanitas finds himself being dragged down and down—  
  
He bursts out of the water, coughing until it hurts. His heart is hammering wildly in his chest now. The ocean floor is almost out of reach. The water has risen so far… So much for relaxing. He was just food for the nightmares.  
  
Sora clicks his tongue. “Oh! But you were doing so well!”  
  
Vanitas is still gasping for breath. There is nothing about him that he would consider ‘well.’  
  
“One more time. You’ve almost got it.”  
  
“No,” he pants. “I don’t.”  
  
“But Vani…”  
  
“Just stop,” Vanitas mutters, defeated. “Stop trying so hard to help me. You’re breaking yourself over something you’re powerless to fix.” Sora’s gobsmacked face bobs just above the water. “It’d be easier to just let the nightmares have me. There’s nothing you can do.”  
  
Sora opens his mouth, but no words come out. His lips move uselessly with arguments he can’t make. It’s useless. Just let it go. Out of everyone, Sora has tried the hardest to reach Vanitas—but even he comes up short. Vanitas will survive while being unreachable. That’s how it’s always been.  
  
How many times does this make? Why doesn’t he just give up? Sora’s pulled a last-ditch effort by dragging Vanitas into his dream—as if Vanitas’s nightmares give a damn. They’ll chase him down to the ends of the worlds, no matter if he’s hiding in Sora’s dreams or in the shallow fringes of sleep. Vanitas can’t outrun them, and he’s so tired of trying.  
  
It’s no fault of Sora’s. Vanitas is not someone who can be saved.  
  
Sora’s face is so serious now. The gears are clearly turning hot in his head. They’ve long-since drifted past the breakers, and the ocean swells enough to loom over their heads. Sora bites his cheek and ducks beneath a passing wave. He doesn’t resurface.  
  
_What—?_  
  
Vanitas feels their connection break apart. Dread drops through him like the falling sun. The water turns dark and clamors up his shoulders. His head is pulled under as the shadows come to life and drag him down again. Black rapids wash the island away like it’s nothing but debris. There’s nothing left but inky, clawing hands that prick at his skin like needles and the deafening roar of waves crashing against his ears.   
  
The sound of rushing water fades, until there’s only the whispers. The incessant chant of the nightmares. But these are voices Vanitas doesn’t recognize. He can’t quite make them out, can’t even feel the lacerations.  
  
But he does feel the weightlessness as he’s sent adrift in sleep again. The pull on his hand is gone. _Sora. Where is Sora?_ The current tosses Vanitas about. The voices grow louder and fiercer, and he follows them down.  
  
He finds Sora on the ocean floor, writhing against shadows that threaten to chain him there. After all of this, one of Vanitas’s monsters still managed to claw its way in? Anger burns away his fear, and he brandishes his keyblade. Who cares about these pathetic little whispers? Shadows never have anything interesting to say.  
  
Void Gear comes down upon the nightmare with a deafening _crack_. Guilt and terror spill out and Vanitas feels like he could vomit. But he keeps swinging. He fights until he can tear away the shadows clamped over Sora’s limbs and pull him back. So Sora can pull _them_ back. The nightmare keeps after them like intrusive, wriggling roots. Sora looks dazed.  
  
_You’re powerless,_ the nightmare taunts, and it burns unlike anything Vanitas has ever felt before.  
  
He cups Sora’s cheek in his hand. Now he’s certain. This monster is Sora’s. He keeps it buried beneath the ocean floor, where no one can reach it. “You said to float, remember?” Vanitas presses.  
  
Sora’s eyes finally regain some focus. “Float?”  
  
“You said something about relaxing and tension,” he rushes. His hand tightens around the hilt of the blade as the nightmare’s dark tendrils crawl closer.  
  
“You gotta let _go_ of the tension, or you’ll sink like a rock,” Sora mumbles half-conscious.  
  
Vanitas pulls him closer. “And how do you think we got here?”  
  
Sora searches Vanitas’s face for the longest time. He sees the inky black vines sprouting all around them on the sea floor—too far down for light to reach—and comes to with a sudden jerk. “W-wait!” He throws his arms around Vanitas’s neck with enough force to knock him down.  
  
Vanitas lets Void Gear dissolve into the ether so he can hold on tight. There’s no telling what Sora will do. He’s always been a wild card, designed to lead to Vanitas’s downfall in every sense of the word. Vanitas just can’t stay on his feet.  
  
They hit the seafloor and it breaks like the surface of the water. Vanitas is dragged down to be pulled up into the shimmering sunlight and takes a gulp of salty air, back along the shore of Destiny Islands. He stumbles through the vertigo and nausea and Sora holds steady to his arms. The waves splash just to their knees.  
  
“Sorry,” Sora chuckles. “That might’ve been a little too fast.”  
  
Vanitas shakes it off the best he can. “What did I say about forewarning?”  
  
“I don’t think we’ve ever talked about that.”  
  
“Clearly,” he grumbles.  
  
“What happened to all your poise and balance, huh?” he sneers.  
  
He grabs Sora by the shoulders. “I’ll show you poise…”  
  
Sora laughs, but there’s no mirth in it. His head drops low, until the ends of sun-bleached spikes just brush along Vanitas’s neck. “Sorry…”  
  
Vanitas pulls him in. The shadows still whisper in his mind and beneath his skin: _Destroyer. … Destroyer._ But the only thing he wants to destroy is them. He uses his strength to shield Sora from the waves and whatever else threatens to pull him under. All the times Sora’s done the same for him… it’s only fair. It’s only _right_. Not that Vanitas has any precedent on what’s right or wrong, only what Sora would do.  
  
If Sora would do it, if Sora _has_ done it, it must be right. Right?  
  
It has to be, because that’s all Vanitas has got. Nightmares be damned. He lifts Sora off his feet and marches out of the water.  
  
Sora makes a surprised little chirp. “Vani!?” His arms return to Vanitas’s neck.  
  
“Stop squirming.” He sets him back down only when they’re both safe on the shore. “I’m not gonna drop you.” The sand is soft and unreal. It doesn’t even stick to wet skin. Dreams can be whatever they want, huh?  
  
Sora leans into him. He’s still trying to catch his breath. “You’ve got me?”  
  
Vanitas lets his heels sink into the warm sand. The sun is hot on his face. The waves are calm and quiet. “I guess I do…”

.

.

.

Riku’s hands hover over the bed. The two bodies intertwined atop the covers have turned peacefully still. Vanitas breathes a sigh of relief while Sora softly snores. Riku snickers beneath his breath. Looks like he wasn’t needed here, after all. The nightmares have already fled.  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> What if I told you this fic was never about Vanitas?
> 
> Also: surprise hints of sorivani as the cherry on top. Fledgling dreameater Vani is quite nice, and I had a lot of fun with this.
> 
> Also (x2): the title is from the Gin Blossoms!
> 
> -pluto


End file.
